US Patent Issued to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Toyota Jidosha on July 22 for "Retractable table structure" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,364,326, issued on July 22, was assigned to Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. (Plano, Texas) and Toyota Jidosha K.K. (Toyota, Japan).

"Retractable table structure" was invented by Michael Paul Rowe (Pinckney, Mich.) and Danil V. Prokhorov (Canton, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A table structure includes a table top structured to be configurable to a retracted configuration and to a fully deployed configuration for use. At least one shape memory material (SMM) member is operably connected to the table top such that energization of the SMM member configures the table top to the fully deployed configuration ...